Heroin and sleep paralysis?

[crOOk]

I've noticed that a number of people have reported to see ghosts during or after falling asleep on heroin. Some also report that they could not move because of their fear.

I believe what this might be is a phenomenom called Sleep Paralysis...
You can do a Google search , but I've listed some details below already.
I have experienced these things a couple of times (<10?), especially between 16 and 20 which is very common! I know from my own experience that they can be extremely frightening, especially because you're still paralyzed from the sleep. To me it seems like the mind didn't really awake completely. The eyes are still open, but the muscles are still paralyzed which happens to all of us to some degree when we go to sleep in order for the body not to move while we are dreaming. I've never experienced any creatures, ghosts, people, spiders or anything before in sleep paralysis. But there is always a strong sense of wrongness, somehow like in a bad dream, it feels very wrong. It's just like a mix of being awake and asleep and it sucks royally. One person even reported to be raped. She felt all the pain and everything and her memory was completely real after that. So this is scary stuff. I usually experienced it after I hadn't smoked pot for a couple of days. I wonder how Heroin is linked to sleep paralysis though...

Check it out:

What are the symptoms?

* A complaint of inability to move the trunk or limbs at sleep onset or upon awakening
* Presence of brief episodes of partial or complete skeletal muscle paralysis
* Episodes can be associated with hypnagogic hallucinations or dream-like mentation (act or use of the brain)

Polysomnography (a sleep recording) shows at least one of the following:

* suppression of skeletal muscle tone
* a sleep onset REM period
* dissociated REM sleep

You may be able to minimize the episodes by following good sleep hygiene:

* getting enough sleep
* reduce stress
* exercise regularly (but not too close to bedtime)
* keep a regular sleep schedule

Source: www.stanford.edu/~dement/paralysis.html

Diagnostic Classification Steering Committee, Thorpy MJ, Chairman. International Classification of Sleep Disorders: Diagnostic and Coding Manual. Rochester, Minnesota: American Sleep Disorders Association, 1990.

Kryger, Meir H., Roth, Thomas, Dement, William C. Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine, 2nd Edition. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: W.B. Saunders Company, 1994.

crOOk

 

[drugfuked]

i have experienced this before but after cocaine. i would keep having the same dream over and over but slightly different each time. then towards the end of the dream something scary would happen. i would wake up to loud noises, banging on the door, ghosts flying around in front of my face (more like blurry white images.. not really clear enough to identify as anything). i woke up hearing very very loud banging noises on my door and could hear a mob of people running towards me. i would try to move but could not. i couldnt work out if i was dreaming that i could see my bedroom or if i was actually awake and, well.. paralysed! after the 6th time of this happening over an hour or so i started to get the hang of it a bit and realised i would have TRY to wake myself up.

quite a scary thing to experience. personally i would put it down to something your drugs have been cut with. the only reason that cocaine and heroin could both be linked to sleep paralysis would be the cutting agent, no? i definately do not even consider the same source after these fuked up dreams. 3 other people i know suffered the same shit. they alsp happened to be the guys who chucked in with us for the charlie. one of them only had a point or 2 and still had sleep paralysis. :/

 

[crOOk]

Weird. It happened to you and your friends at the same time after using the same coke? Now that's strange. I'm not so sure about any cutting agents though... I think most of the stuff they cut all the white powder with is not psychoactive.

I also know lots of what you described. These dreams usually occur after a series of extremely short and often frightnening. The content is often linked! I sometimes also wake up in the middle of a dream and then dream on. These are usually the perfect scenarios for my sleep paralysis.
When it happen while waking up, it's usually preceded by a nightmare.
I experienced acoustic sensations as well once. It was like a banging noise coming closer. Like a King Kong coming up the stairs. Plain scary.

Anyway I just read that naturalone closed "Night Visitors & Opiates". I guess this one's going to be closed down as well. Too bad, I always wanted to know more about possible drug connections to sleep paralysis.

crOOk

 

[drugfuked]

I also know lots of what you described. These dreams usually occur after a series of extremely short and often frightnening. The content is often linked! I sometimes also wake up in the middle of a dream and then dream on. These are usually the perfect scenarios for my sleep paralysis.

yes.. exactly the same! you wake up but ur still dreaming.. sorta like opiate dreamland but then it all starts to go bad, eventually scaring the shit out of you. i remember thinking to myself why the fuk cant i wake up!!?!? then i realise i am looking at the door, my eyes have been awake the whole time and um.. yeh.. WTF

 

[crOOk]

i am looking at the door, my eyes have been awake the whole time

It's almost ridiculous how similar these experiences are. For me it's the window, not the door though. But there's always something about the eyes, too. Once my vision was shaking really fast, I guess my eyes were moving, can't be sure though. After all it might have been part of the dream experience. Who knows.

Lots of people never knew others suffer of sleep paralysis as well, but afaik 1 out of 6 people has it at least once in his life.

I wish this thread could go in more of a drug related driection though. Well, you said you had it after using coke. Only after coke or also when being sober? Or do you use coke very frequent? Any other drugs that might be related?

crOOk

 

[fastandbulbous]

A lot of what people are describing almost sounds like a dark version of what happens with kappa agonists like savinorin A (beween awake and asleep, very real and scary etc).

I've had the same thing happen with high doses of dihydrocodeine, and from what I can remember of it, it did have some things in common with salvia effects (the sudden, overwhelming, but irrational fear being the one that sticks in my mind). The paralysis bit is because your brain generally inhibits motor signals during REM sleep to stop you physically acting out your dreams (and possibly injuring yourself). If this is still active when your concious mind kicks in, you are unable to move, and this just accenuates any anxiety already present.

Never had it happen without an opiate being involved.

PS. A combination of paralysis (helplessness) and the very real feeling that goes with the different reality is supposed to be what accounts for a lot of cases of "Alien Abduction Syndrome" - A very real and lifelike dream about aliens combined with an inability to do anything about it because of the paralysis.

That's definite nightmare material in my book

 

[crOOk]

I can understand how this could be related to the "Alien Abduction Syndrome". You've also stated that you have been in this state only after taking opiates. I haven't explored these very extensively, but if this is what happens, fuck them.

I could not compare the phenomenom to the salvinorin experience in any way though. The only thing I can compare to Salvia is my inability to move on some trips.

I really wonder what causes the hallucinations, if you could call them that. The anxiety might just be a result of the paralysis and the usually overall negative experience. I guess you're right with that, the panic usually hit me after I had realized my paralysis.

To all you people reporting this after having consumed opiate, when exactly does it happen, after, before or during sleep? Or son't you sleep at all when this happens? Which opiates are the most likely to have this effect on you. And how frequently does it happen??

crOOk

 

[hashforlife]

I have something similar about once a week, but usually it last the day. I am depressed(moodswing from quitting benzos) when I go bed, and yhave that feeling in the sleep, and lie in bed until the next night in half sleep and dream something that makes me think I or someone else will die if I move. It sounds fucked up, but its tru. Therefore I always try to go to bed high as kite to fall asleep fast and happily.

Peace

 

[crOOk]

Hashforlife, what you are experiencing sounds quiet different to me, not like sleep paralysis at all, but I bet the benzos are connected to your problems...
I admit, cannabis is by far the best sleep inducer in relation to it's side effects and withdrawl symptoms which are practically non-existent.
I use it on a daily basis for sleeping purposes and it helps me a lot. I've never experienced any intense nightmares (what would be a nightmare without cannabis, seems more like a fun action dream with cannabis) whatsoever, nor have their been any moments of sleep paralysis. It's so sad doctors always prescribe benzos and other knock out downers so quick, when most people can handle their sleeping anomalities quiet well with nature's help...
If cannabis wouldn't exist, I would have serious problems at night!

crOOk

 

[negrogesic]

I had NEVER had any form of sleep paralysis before i started drugs, namely methadone and diazepam. The dreams are mainly hypnopompic, but i get hypnogogic ones as well. They are usually EXTREMELY dysphoric. I attribute some of this to methadone's suppression of REM sleep, so the sleep isnt very deep, and the mind is very awake. I also started to talk ALOT when i was sleeping, i mean talking for hours out loud, which has never really happened to me, at least nowhere near this extent. Definitely not very fulfilling sleep.

Some of these dreams and the sleep paralysis have gotten so real and vivid, that at the peak of my sleep paralysis/vivid dream onset, i was actually not sure what was real or not. When i was awake, everything seem fake and dream like, but when i was asleep, i felt like it was the REAL reality. I even almost started to think that when i was dreaming these SUPER vivid dreams were in fact real, and when i was awake i thought i was actually asleep. The lines between reality and the second life my mind had created in my sleep were getting VERY blurry. This borders on psychosis, which scare the LIVING SHIT out of me, because both my maternal grandmother and uncle are severe paranoid-schizophrenics, and i have ALWAYS had a fear that because of my genes i would myself descend into madness.

Given, during the daytime, i was on a depressant haze from my 180-240mg of methadone, and my 200mg of diazepam, and my nightly shot of HEROIN. Its hard to pinpoint what drug is causing these hypnopompic/gogic sleep paralysis dreams, as i take many different medications, and i cant stop taking them (although, today is my 8th day heroin free since over a year of daily high dose heroin abuse). But i never had anything like this before i started getting heavy into drugs

I generally have a usual type of sleep paralysis episode. I dream i am somehow being suppressed physically, or that i am paralyzed, usually head to toe (i can even lift up my head, I lift it a little, and it keeps on slumping over onto my chest. I call out to help, usually, strangers (people vie never actually seen in my real life, completely fictional), or my mother. I ask them me to get up from my state of paralysis, and as HARD as i try, i simple cannot use my limbs. It happens really often in this really comfortable reclining lazy-boy chair that i used to take my "methadone naps" on (especially when i sleep on my back in general, it happens more). I really think that its because of the huge doses of methadone I take, because methadone's suppression of REM sleep. Im not quite asleep, but im not awake either when i have these episodes. But yes, drugs like methadone and heroin will suppress REM sleep and very likely induce sleep paralysis and "night-terrors" (its usually a horrible combo of the both)....

I really think that a lot of supposed alien "abductions" are just sleep paralysis/hypnogogic/pompic dreams, which is very understandable, as they appear VERY realistic, you smell scents, you feel pain, etc. And time kind of stops when your in this state, so its understandable why people wake up in the middle of the street naked, thinking they've been just dropped off by UFO (people who think they have been abducted tend to be paranoid and egotistical, because they think that THEY have something the "aliens" want, but in reality there is often nothing special about them, and a lot of these people who think they've been abducted are often uneducated and just not the sharpest crayon in the box, but im stereotyping).

 

[fastandbulbous]

^^^

Yes, the scariest moments I've had with opiates were when I found that I could not distinguish between everyday reality and what was going on in my head.

Those episodes always seem to have certain things in common, the main one being that instead of sleep, the opiate produces a state where you're incredibly relaxed, comfortable and your degree of alertness is similar to when you keep surfacing from sleep in a morning, but find it really easy to repeatedly drift back to the semi-concious state.

Funnily enough, that state also describes the feeling when opiates are making me feel like I have no worries in the world. Maybe the bouts of "the horror, the horror" are the flipside of opiate use, a bit like an opiate "bad trip", as all drugs I've ever tried all seem to have a negative, never want to repeat state that can happen occasionally

 

[junksick]

I'll have this happen to me once every couple of months or so, but it's never been drug related. It just sort of happens to me... I haven't any idea why, I guess it must run in my family or something. It really is one of the scariest feelings in the world--like your on the verge of death; total fear and not being able to do a single thing about it.

That's a damn interesting theory on alien abductions and ghosts too, as a skeptic I salute you.

 

[HighRollin'420*]

Not sure i've ever experienced this though sometimes when i nod off after a big bang of smack as soon as i wake up there is a transition of about 10-30 seconds where my eyes open and i can see but im not really awake yet cant really realise whats goin on?...

 

[crOOk]

Until recently I never knew a person on opiates was even capable of fear! It really surprises me that it's possible because they're supposed to act as a relaxant, simply put...

Could anyone be more specific on the dosage range he experiences these feelings. Is there really a complete inability to move, is there an evil presence felt and especially anything related to body vibrations would be very interesting? If any or all of these components are present in the opiat experiences, it might be sleep paralysis.

I am seriously starting to doubt though, that this has anything to do with sleep paralysis at all... Sleep paralysis is imo the scariest thing on earth and that comes from a quiet experienced user of LSD/shrooms/2C-I/DPT and even 5-MeO-DMT (still like to feel like a drug newbie though )! And I consider 5-MeO-DMT to be quiet scary as well, but not close to the terror of a full blown sleep paralysis. It's different and you can't really compare the two, but if I had the choice of either one, I'd probably take the SP because it is so short and a 5MeO trip just seems like an eternity.
Actually I think opiates should do quiet the opposite and a withdrawl could probably lead to sleep paralysis problems. That's the way it works with pot for me. The pot might also just suppress the sp, but probably result in a rebound in addition. I don't think it suppresses though, since usually these experiences do not happen too often in one's life and it would ben extreme coincidence that this things always happens to me after quitting the pot.

Anyway, I'd appreciate if the opiate readers would do some quick reading about SP and report back if the opiat induced state could be part the same neurological process. Because after all, this is why I started this thread.

Also, guys and gals, we need your age. This is a very important factor with sp!

crOOk

 

[Rosclot]

^^^
Funny this thread comes out because I had my first experience with SP about a week ago. I was on about 40MG Oxy. It was really intense. I could not move and I kept on seeing a 'person' walking around my bedroom. Luckily I wasn't really scared because some where in my brain it was telling me hey this is only the drugs.

 

[crOOk]

Now this sounds a LOT like a sleep paralysis. Why did you call it that anyway? Are you sure it is SP? Also, at what point in the experience did this happen to you and how long did it last?
Has anyone else witnissed or felt the presence of other entities?

crOOk

 

[lecrimeparfait]

I had a similar experience when trying to go to sleep after a night of using heroin.
Each time I layed my head down to go to bed, I heard loud screetching that could be described as a ghost, although I related it best to a train coming at my head full-speed. Of course this loud noise kept me from falling asleep, not to mention scared the shit out of me. Eventually I just passed out with the noise continuing, because I was so ridiculously high, and exhausted.
Hmm..

 

[Kandy K]

I get sleep paralysis quite frequently in fact, and sometimes in these states of paralysis an incubus comes to visit me (i'm seirous). It happens when your body sort of "falls asleep" before your mind does.

I find that I am much more likely to get them after a poor night's sleep, during an afternoon nap. After a several day meth binge when my body starts nodding off, the sleep paralysis actually turns into a nightmare because instead of an incubus coming a demon comes and he tickles me. That's right, he tickles me.

 

[karloff123]

Folks, we're all suffering from "Old Hag" Syndrome.....its been around for ages! For some people it fells like someone or thing is sitting on there chest as they lie on there bed unable to move an inch! It is quite terrifying and unnerveing. The experience also includes feeling as if something evil is in the room with you but you can't turn your head far enough to see it........this all occurs after taking opiates......Oxy 40's for me personally. Another theory is this......in biblical times drugs were equated with witchcraft.....so the theory goes if you open your mind up with drugs your eyes are opened to all sort of supernatural images......good or bad......just a theory.....what do you fellow Bluelighters think?

 

[Rosclot]

I don't believe that you have to be on drugs to experience SP. My best friend use to get this when he was a kid, well before our drug days, and for the longest time he believed that his house was haunted.